


Crashed

by AhmedMootaz



Category: Disney's Toontown Online (Video Game)
Genre: Being Hit With A Train Several Times A Day Hurts, Friendship, Gen, Visiting Your Friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-27 17:58:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19796080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AhmedMootaz/pseuds/AhmedMootaz
Summary: After the entire Operation: Crash Cashbot fiasco, the Chief Financial Officer's mood is about as good as his financial situation. In other words, poor. The Senior Vice President Of Sales, concerned about what he considers a good friend and a cousin, decides to delve into the situation and try cheering him up.Many laughs, much to both Cogs' dismay, are to be had. Also V.P. blares a song about money through C.F.O.'s phone.





	1. The Situation

-"You are hereby promoted to full-fledged Sellbots. Congratulations!"

It was a familiar morning on the long towers of The Sellbots' Headquarters, where The Senior Vice President was standing on the middle part of the top of the shortest tower of the four ones which represented the familiar Sellbots' logo, iconic to both Toons and Cogs. The cloudy skies were a dark grey, just as a Cog adored. The Senior Vice President, commonly referred to as the V.P. for convenience's sake, was waving his large metallic hands at the Cogs who stood in front of him. They varied in their rank, type and level, but they all shared one trait: They had all managed to endure being destroyed several times by the Toons, being rebuilt several times, and finally managing to do something that deserved praise and the attention of their higher ups to deserve their promotion to the next level on the corporate ladder.

The Cogs in front of the V.P. were all quite proud of themselves, and it showed, they all wore exceedingly large smiles and had steady postures as the V.P. continued their promotion speech. Why wouldn't they? They endured so many ordeals for this moment, and they'll be forced to endure the same ordeals (or perhaps even more, depending on their luck) for the following promotion, they had to treasure the moment and enjoy it. Finishing his speech, the Cogs headed away, flying off the end of the tower as the V.P. waved at them.

-"Go! And make that sale!", he yelled after them with his signature motto as he gave them the widest smile his nailed metal mouth allowed. He often envied his fellow Cog Bosses for their ability to change their mouth expressions without having to fully depend on their eyes to change their facial expressions. It was another perk of being built after the V.P. and enjoying the newer technologies. It was at that moment the V.P. heard the massive elevator's door open behind him. It must've been a new batch of Cogs, he thought.

-"Welcome, new Cogs!", Odd. They looked quite strange. Perhaps they were a new version? He wasn't quite sure; he hadn't issued an order for new Sellbot versions. They had the typical Sellbot logo in the middle of their suits, did that not prove it? "You are hereby promoted to full-fledged Sellbots. Congratu-", nevermind that, he'd at least finish his greeting. Well, at least he would've if it wasn't for his Toon captive interrupting him. The Sellbots often captured Toons in their Headquarters as a method of, you guessed it, business. They'd often trade them in for money, trading options, or general peace for a while, the higher the importance of the Toon, the better the deal with the Toons. The better the deal, the better the reward for the Sellbots in general and for the Cog which captured the Toon in particular. Though they were captives, they were generally well-treated, given good food and drink and any detected case of mal-treatment would be punished by the V.P. himself.

-"Hey! Hiya! Hey over here!", it was often the way of things that the Toon captive would demand many things at the strangest of times, it was their "Toony" way. Too lazy to switch to his serious face, the V.P. turned to the Toon captive, smiling. "So, did you Toons come to rescue me?"

No. No. Not this time too! It was the third after the million-th time he had mistaken Toons for Cogs. He knew exactly what was in front of him now after all these times, and he still detested it. "Huh? Toons! In disguise!", the Toons, realizing their disguise only hindered their movements at this point, jumped out of their disguises and got ready, save for a few rookies who tried imitating the Cog way of speaking. They failed miserably before getting intimidated by the V.P.'s angry face. With all the Toons out of their suits and surrounding the V.P. (His back eyes could see that a group of Toons surrounding his back), there was only one more thing to say: "Attack!"

As soon as the V.P. yelled the battle-cry, the usual fight he knew started. He'd start the first round with his Cogs, which he'd store in whatever space he had in his under-carriage (and it was quite large, surprisingly.) and he'd pray for the best. If the Toons were strong, then it would usually be a massacre of destruction, and even if he knew that all these Cogs get rebuilt at the end of the fight, it was still difficult to watch as the Toons managed to overcome round after round of Cogs, almost seeming as it was going to be flawless.

He hated these fights. The Toons who'd manage to infiltrate his security defenses would always be, at the very least, decently trained, and they'd interrupt him during a promotion ceremony, which would catch him off-guard, not to mention that he'd never be able to catch the Toons when disguised, unlike his fellow Bosses, but his optical lenses weren't as advanced his theirs, so he would need to depend on the Toon captive to warn him each time. How the Toons made the same mistake each and every time was beyond him, yet he never complained. Then he saw it. Behind him, the Toons' gags, used to make a Cog laugh uncontrollably and thus explode, missed, leaving them stranded against a group of his top-tier Mr.Hollywoods, the highest ranking Sellbots a Toon can face. The Hollywoods attacked, and with their great power, he saw two Toons go sad. Apparently, not all of this group was high-laffed.

But the Toons managed to endure his Cog round, and he'd do what he'd do every time: Try to run using the elevator. The V.P. was, of course, too slow to outrun the Toons, but it was worth a shot nonetheless. He was quickly surrounded, however, and with the encouragements of his Toon captive the Sellbot Boss was going to need to fight the Toons again, this time using his Skelecog emergency reserve stored, again, in his under-carriage. That round went considerably better, considering the fact that his Skelecogs would be used in emergencies only and as such be high leveled, and he saw two other Toons go sad under his Skelecogs' business strategies, which bore the Toons to death, quite literally in this case. The large purple boss struggled not to turn to his smiling face; while the Cogs can't take the concentrated Toon jokes, they had their own humor, and the years-long battle against the Toons helped the V.P., most of the bosses and some veteran Cogs develop an immunity, albeit a weak one.

The Skelecog round was finished, and the V.P. was now facing four Toons who were about to attack him directly. This part was the worst of the fight; the Toons would attempt to provoke the V.P. until he'd open up his under-carriage to attack them, then they'd throw a pie (provided by none other than the Toon captive) into his under-works, gumming them up. It's worse than being knocked out; he could feel everything that's happening, but he'd have no control over his actions until he self-repairs. If he couldn't defeat the Toons, then they'll push him back when he's stunned from their pies and eventually push him off the tower into Sellbot HQ's iconic hole. Nevermind the humiliation, the fall was _painful_ , and there were several times he entered an urgent state after falling several times in a day and nearly shut down permanently.

Back to the current fight, he wasn't doing so well. He was halfway through falling off the tower, and most Toons had more than half their health. A quick analysis with his optical lenses determined that only two of the four he was facing had high-laff, and so he did the most logical thing: Jump. His jumps had catastrophic consequences on the Toons' laff, and while they quite annoyed him, he didn't mind using them indiscriminately against the Toons, and wouldn't you know it, a few jumps later (and a few pushes later, the V.P. was now dangerously close to falling), he had managed to get three of the four down, which was a miracle considering how rare this event was, though the unaware nature of one of the two high-laffers made him get separated from his buddy, and thus his source of regaining laff, and a few botched dodges later, he was down. His struggle against the last experienced Toon ended relatively quickly, thankfully, as the bunny Toon which he was facing had finally retaliated and pulled out a portable hole to return to a playground, the Toon strongholds. The V.P. always thought that bunnies were slightly more vulnerable to getting panicky if things weren't going smooth, though he knew that the Toon's species didn't make the difference, a crocodile (which was a relatively new visitor to Toontown, as they only started migrating there a few years ago) had as much courage as a bunny, but he let go of that thought and realized that he was alone on the towers.

It was over.

-"Good grief...That was horrible...", taking a deep breath and putting his metallic hands on his waist, the large Sellbot Boss stated while glaring at the Toon captive as he headed towards the elevator. "I forbid you from any jellybean treats for two days for what you've done.", he announced, keeping his frowning face to the Toon, who shrunk from his glare as their cage was returned to its original height; the Toons had tried getting it down as they fought. "You're lucky I have much business to do today, Toon! Otherwise, I could've done various things to you which you wouldn't have appreciated like...Uh...", in truth while he always seemed extremely threatening, he could never go _too_ far with punishing his Toon captives, that was just wrong, "I'll make you listen to our latest marketing plan for the furniture market to study customer interest!", just hearing business terms would be enough for the Toons to cry in fear even if the V.P. knew that the Sellbots had absolutely zero interest in the furniture market at all these days, but it felt good to put a Toon in their place.

-"Mr. Senior Vice President sir!", it was a Mr.Hollywood which saw the chaos from the Sellbot Factory, who flew away to his boss to make sure everything was okay.

-"Hello, Mr.Hollywood-213-11. How're you doing?", the larger Sellbot answered while scanning his underling with his optical lenses as he ordered the elevator, shifting to his smiling face. It was nice seeing another Sellbot in this place after the chaos of a Toon battle. It wasn't a readily-available luxury should the V.P. have fallen.

-"How am I doing? Sir, I assume you were attacked right now by Toons, sir, what were the losses?", the V.P. never liked how his underlings lacked the gift of a sense of humor. Or any other sense outside their work traits when not on a break or during a shift. 213-11 was pointing to the several Cog parts scattered around the place, holding a Telemarketer head in his hands while looking at it.

-"AH!", the head screamed as it looked at 213-11, startling him, but the V.P. remained calm as if this was a usual sight. In truth, it was. "Woah...Hey, did we win? Is it over?", the head inquired, shifting his gaze between the ground and the V.P.

-"Yeppers! You did it, gentlemen! You should expect a promotion soon!", the purple clothed Cog encouraged the destroyed Telemarketer, and the latter rejoiced. Along side every single other head, limb, or body which was scattered around the place, who engaged in their own proper conversations with one another about how heroic the battle must've been and how many sacrifices they made. 213-11 put down the Telemarketer head as calmly as he could before trying to regain his calm. He succeeded remarkably.

-"Mr. Senior Vice President sir, I'd like to accompany you to your quarters' door, if you wouldn't mind. I'd like to discuss something.", 213-11 demanded politely as the V.P. nodded amicably while the elevator finally arrived and opened its massive doors.

-"Send a Rescue And Repair crew to the fourth tower of Sellbot Towers, we are in dire need of it.", the V.P. ordered through the elevator's intercom as 213-11 came closer to enter the elevator. While the larger Sellbot should theoretically have a smart-phone on his person at all times, he usually forgot it on promotion ceremonies, which often led him to being unable to order help from the rest of the headquarters. "It's a pleasure seeing another Sellbot after this mess, 213-11, you have my deepest gratitude for coming on such urgent note.", the purple suit-wearing Cog thanked his underling with his smiling face as the elevator started moving down to another floor which would lead them to a walkway that reach to the V.P.'s personal quarters in the largest Sellbot tower.

-"I take that as a promotion promise, sir?", 213-11 inquired, his already large smile getting larger. The V.P. made a small chuckle and mumbled a "maybe" as 213-11 did the same before getting serious again. "Sir, with all due respect, is your under-carriage in a fine state, sir? From the chaos on the tower, it would seem that you got attacked with pies in it again, sir. And, might I ask, why is it that you cannot tell the Toons inside their disguises? The Goons guarding the elevator lobby I understand, but you, sir?", the Mr.Hollywood demanded as the elevator reached its destined floor, making the V.P. frown and turn to his angry face.

-"While these _are_ , admittedly, good questions, 213-11, you should know that my optical lenses would be extremely difficult to update and require several days of maintenance, not to mention the risk of hitting a vital cord and making me permanently shut down until it is replaced, and my current ones cannot detect Toons, and even if their heads are showing, I cannot subtract the possibility of them being a newly issues version by Cog Nation, can I?", the Sellbot Boss answered with an air of dignity as the Mr.Hollywood in front of him seemed to think the answer wasn't too illogical, "As for my under-carriage, I undergo weekly maintenance, 213-11, and after many improvements, I had several upgrades installed to prevent any long-lasting effects the pies may possess.", he added, walking to the bridge which linked the tower to the tallest tower of the Sellbot Towers, leading to another elevator which the two Cogs boarded."Though I appreciate your asking."

-"No thanks needed, sir, I did what I was needed to do. And it's nice seeing that you have not fallen today, it would have been a blow to everyone's morales.", his underling replied as the second elevator's doors opened, leading to two massive doors which resembled every bit what you'd expect of fancy Cog fashion; several cogs decorated the doors, with a massive one divided by the split between the two doors, it was mostly grayish black, with some gold and purple lines here and there, alongside a Sellbot logo on its right side and the V.P.'s smiling face on the other side, with a small sign under his face with the name "Senior Vice President" written on it.

-"Trust me, 213-11, it would have been a blow to me as well.", the giant Sellbot sarcastically replied as he clicked his quarters' key in its key-hole and unlocked the twin doors.

-"Definitely, sir. I'd assume the falls are painful.", 213-11 concurred as the V.P. pushed the massive doors, turning his head to his underling to wait for him to finish talking.

-"You think?", the Sellbot Boss's tone was almost harsh; the falls were painful indeed, and losing an arm or a wheel on the way down was just icing on the painful cake...Disregarding the maintenance costs, pain, and humiliation, the Toons manage to throw him off so often that he decided not to fill the massive hole he creates in the center of the Headquarters each time he falls, leaving a permanent hole in the middle of the Sellbots' central workplace and forcing them to reroute around it.

-"Ah, sorry, sir, no offense meant, that was probably obvious enough. It was a pleasure seeing you today.", the Sellbot apologized immediately, backing away from any conflict with his boss, who softened up and returned to his smiling face, but before he could reply, 213-11 interrupted again, "Oh, and one last thing, sir, don't you think vocabulary such as "Yeppers" is too...unorganized to be used?"

-"Well, 213-11, I believe that is _m_ _y_ decision to make, no? It keeps the morales up, and none gets hurt.", the firm reply silenced any further questions his underling had, and with a quick salutation, he retreated away, probably heading to do some business. In truth, the V.P. picked up on quite a bit of the Toons' vocabulary, and while he was certain it wasn't ideal for a Cog in his position, it did boost the morales considerably, and the constant usage of "Cog-suitable" words was, in fact, quite difficult.

-"Quarters sweet quarters, I'm back! Phew...that was difficult...", he mumbled to himself as he turned on the lights, seeing his room in all its glory and resting himself on the massive couch centered in the middle of the room with its back to the wall. It was large enough to accommodate three of the four Cog Bosses, making his room an ideal place to invite his fellow Cog Bosses. That was, of course, without mentioning the massive meetings' table in an adjacent room, which contained several chairs, tables, and computers for research purposes, his personal room, and the small kitchen he possessed, mostly used for oil-based recipes. For having the smallest room of the Cog Bosses, the V.P. wasn't half disappointed with it, especially after a fight with the Toons. He tried de-bolting some the bolts which held his suit in place, opening his purple sweater a bit and loosening his white shirt underneath it, deflating on the couch and staring at the turned-off TV in front of him. A small break, that was all he needed. Just a few minutes of catching his breath and getting new sweaters. A few minutes later, true to his intention, he turned on the small lamp on his head and further de-bolted his purple sweater and headed to his personal room to search for something new. While he'd be either relaxing or holding a meeting at this time of the day, he had something else today. He had to visit someone.

Stepping back to his living-room, wearing basically an identical sweater with a small green shirt under it, he heard a knock on the door, and he was expecting it; it was a team he ordered to give him a small presentation about something troubling all of the Cogs recently.

-"Hello, Mingler-178-10, it is nice seeing you with your group.", he greeted the Mingler Cog standing in front of him, and she bowed respectfully, letting her boss see her group; a high-ranking Gland Hander with his titular constant glad smile and his large hands alongside a Cold Caller. While bringing such a low-ranking Cog may seem odd on the salescogs' part, the smaller Cogs needed to get experience _somehow_ , and with many of the ones stationed in the Factories or on patrols in various parts of Toontown returning as small parts which need to be rebuilt, accompanying more experienced Cogs in such missions was considered an optimal and safe way of gaining a promotion soon, even if it meant enduring their jokes and having to do their work for them to get mentioned in the post-work file. It was something the V.P. always stood against, especially when he'd observe such a situation, but he knew he couldn't prevent all the Sellbots from doing so.

-"Good evening, Mr.Senior Vice Preside-"

-"Just call me V.P., it makes it easier.", interrupting the bright-pink haired Cog and slightly catching her off-guard, she could only oblige before resuming her sentence.

-"Well, my group and I are prepared for the presentation, Mr.V.P., if you are ready for us to present it, sir.", she informed him pointing to her small squad, who all bowed respectfully, the Cold Caller slipping a little.

-"Sure I am, come on in!", the V.P. warmly invited them, and he could practically sense how weirded out they were by his actions in what was supposed to be work time.

After their entry, the small Cog squad ordered the Cold Caller to install a personal laptop of theirs and connected it to the massive TV in the V.P.'s room as the cog Boss sat on the couch, full of anticipation as the Mingler started her speech.

-"As we all know, Toons, the eternal enemy of Cogs and their business plans to turn Toontown into a business utopia, come in many species; dogs, cats, deer, crocodiles, pigs, monkeys, ducks and-"

-"I kinda know all of that, 178-10, I'm older than all of you. It's a nice presentation and all, but there's one thing I want to know about.", he interrupted her, slightly making her flustered as she ordered the Cogs around her to skip to a particular slide of their presentation, and so the TV stopped displaying a wide array of Toons and their activities along with some explanations and charts and switched to a picture of a peculiar paper, and the V.P. immediately recognized the Chairman's writing. The two weren't particularly close, in spite of The Chairman being quite literally V.P.'s creator; the two had wildly different opinions on many subjects, though the two still immensely respected each other.

-"After much research, we Cogs were able to deduce that The Toon Resistance, a militaristic toon branch for combating the Cogs,", the larger boss nearly turned to his angry face to display a bored face; he already knew all of this. He didn't want to sound rude, and he knew he did sound ungrateful for their hard work, but he was anxious about one thing in particular, "Has found out about the C.F.O. Project.", and yet his metallic heart sank as soon as he heard the phrase. No. They couldn't have...the Toons weren't as smart as that...they couldn't have been..."These documents were retrieved from the pockets of high-ranking Toon Resistance members after a fierce battle, sir.", as if she wanted to terrify him further, she emphasized on where these were retrieved from.

-"...So I suppose they now know what we're working on...?", dejected, the V.P. questioned with a broken smile; the C.F.O. Project was something all the Cogs were looking forward to, if it was known by the Toons, then it would be certain they'd attack it next. But the Glad Hander's plastered smile widened as he took the lead.

-"Well, sir, while the Toons were able to decode the message, they weren't able to decode its intent!", he comforted the V.P., and for a moment his morales reached the sky before the Glad Hander resumed, slightly worried about how to tell his boss the following news."That was the good news...The bad news is that they acted accordingly.", he muttered, changing the slide to a video, "Take a look, sir, this was recovered from top-secret Toon documents."

The V.P. immediately turned to his frowning face unintentionally as he saw Cashbot Headquarters' silhouette appear, shortly followed by the actual HQ after the typical introduction for a Toon Resistance video appeared. The Headquarters seemed so calm, Cashbots were walking around, working in the large train courtyard their headquarters was famous for. Trains were moving past them, not phasing any of the Cashbots in the slightest. The V.P. saw Bean Counters, Tightwads, Number Crunchers and Money Bags, Cogs he had amicable relations with. Save for the Money Bags. He had a vendetta for 'em. Then they started appearing. Toons. Hiding behind the pillars or above the support beams of the train yard, they observed the Cogs, waiting for their moments. The V.P. then noticed a small phrase at the bottom-right of the screen:

"10 Minutes To Operation". That wasn't good. Already on the edge of his seat, the V.P. watched as the video cut to a building he knew well: "Talking In Your Sleep Voice Training", it was a well-known fact among the Bosses that it was a secret Headquarters for the Toon Resistance the gather, but what sent him raging, was the Toon he saw inside the building.

-"Why, that piece of- It's him! Lowden Clear! I knew he wasn't to be trusted!", playing as a traveling merchant with a new head-version, Lord Lowden Clear easily went along with all the Cog HQs until the V.P. got suspicious of him when he saw him in Sellbot HQ during Operation: Storm Sellbot. An operation the V.P. had to pay for as Toons shut down his Sellbot Factory, pushing him into a corner and focusing their efforts to shut his HQ down completely. Luckily, that didn't happen, but for a month and a half he was sieged, and he needed help from the Cashbots to actually push the Toons out. Lowden claimed he was monitoring the Toons, but the V.P. didn't buy it, and it wasn't long before he convinced the Chief Justice and Chief Executive Officer, bosses of the Lawbots and Bossbots respectively, of his opinion. Though the Chief Financial Officer still kept him around because of his "fantastic deals.". The Sellbot Boss watched as the Resistance Leader detailed his findings about the C.F.O. Project, and the Gland Hander hadn't been lying; the Toons had actually thought the project was related to the Cashbot Boss. The Toons agreed to deplete the C.F.O's supplies by stopping his trains and, quote, "crashing them."

The V.P.'s heart kept sinking into the chasm that had been his chest as the video cut back to The Cashbot Train-Yard. In the train line, in which every train needs to get clearance from a qualified Bean Counter, there was a small Trolley with a cardboard box over it. The box had a crude drawing of a Cashbot Train on it, and the V.P. couldn't help but think it was a pathetic disguise before the captions "Create A Distraction" appeared. As the Trolley was progressing through the line, the footage cut to some Toons in crude Cashbot disguises passing by some Goons. The V.P. sufficed by rolling his eyes; Goons weren't the smartest. The disguises reminded him of the "Rental Suits" the Toons used to help weaker Toons pass by the Goons without a proper disguise. The V.P. then turned back to his smiling face as he saw two Cashbots, a Loan Shark and a Robber Baron, stop the Toons just as they were about to mess with the Track Control Room. That blasted Lowden Clear even mentioned how the Cashbots have "much tighter security than the Sellbots.", the V.P. took it as a compliment to Cogs in general to ignore the obvious insult to Sellbot security.

The footage cut again, and this time it was to see the Trolley arrive in front of the Bean Counter. He wasn't fooled, luckily, but the Trolley was doing its job: Being a distraction. The Sellbot Boss turned back to his frowning face as Lowden Clear mumbled something about how this was "the part where he'd come in". The Toon Resistance leader quickly deposed of the Cogs which were preventing the Toons from messing with the tracks, and they did their work, switching them around.

It was massacre, simply put. The Cashbots' trains kept ramming into each other, not mentioning the trains targeted by Toons, which, during this chaos, attacked the Cogs in the Headquarters with extreme prejudice and eliminated all of them; the poor Cogs had no chance against such overwhelming numbers. The V.P. watched, filled with pain, as the last two up-and-running trains rammed into each other and Lowden Clear watched the result of his handy-work from the C.F.O Vault's door. The camera started zooming back and the V.P. saw the full extent of the destruction; a train flipped upside down with Banana Peels, another squashed with a Toontanic, several ones crashed into each other violently. The Toons had transformed several carts into supply reserves, and any Cog that dared walk into their former-HQ was quickly and swiftly defeated. And the walls were riddled with Cog-mocking graffiti. The icing on the cake.

-"That was horrible.", the purple suit-wearing Cog simply stated, dejected while the three Sellbots nodded in agreement, "178-10, immediate case-report, I want every detail right now!", he didn't mean to sound angry, but he did. Oh boy, he did.

-"Right away, sir.", if there was one good thing about his underlings' lack of emotion display, it's that they didn't seem bothered by his yelling. "The middle of The Cashbots' Headquarters was transformed into a Resistance Outpost, with Lowden Clear overseeing the operation from it. There are several Resistance Rangers around the train-yard, commanding various Toon squadrons into Mints and to fight the C.F.O himself, they also hand out various missions for Toons to complete on their behalf, sir. However, we captured a few of them on various occasions, and we obtained useful information as a result.", the Mingler explained while her boss listened attentively.

-"Such as?", he demanded eagerly.

-"The Operation ends today, sir, and the Cashbots need help from us for the retaliation plan.", she bluntly answered, catching the V.P. by surprise.

-"And nobody told me? I demand every piece of information to be delivered to my office, 178-10, from now on, I must be aware of everything. And please, do send the requested help to the Cashbots.", he ordered bitterly as the trio nodded. Sure, he was a busy Cog, but this wasn't a typical situation, this was a _large-scale conflict_ for crying out loud! "Anything else I should know of? Particular rewards that the Toons are getting for this? Is the "Silly Meter" involved in any of this?", he interrogated, making air-quotes with that last sentence from his couch, and the Glad Hander retaliated by checking the slides they had prepared.

-"Well, sir, we've gotten cards from Lord Lowden Clear, sir, they were meant for Toons, but we obtained them, which means we have a few chances to intercept Lord Lowden Clear at any time.", the smiling Cog gleefully pulled out four cards which he handed over to his boss, who stared at them in awe.

-"Any Cog that participated in getting these cards gets promoted on the spot.", was the only thing he muttered while examining the cards like they were precious jewels. "These must, however be put in a safe place, my custody, for example.", he continued, putting them in his pockets. "Anything else?"

-"Not that we know of, sir. The only rewards Toons are getting are purely cosmetics or various quantities of Cogbucks or some of the cards in your hands, sir. The only other thing we know of is that the raids on the Mints are taking a heavy toll on Cashbot financial capabilities, and that the C.F.O is in a serious state of disrepair.", the Mingler answered decisively. The V.P. applauded at the small presentation as a phrase which read "The End", appeared.

-"Thank you, 178-10. This was very informative. You should all expect raises and promotions soon. Only, I knew of the last part.", he closed his eye with sorrow as the Cold Caller packed up their stuff.

-"It's a massive shame, sir. But the retaliation effort today should prove effective. Goodbye, sir.", she replied while getting out of his room, trying to avoid eye-contact. As the trio went out, the Cold Caller waved anxiously at his boss, and his wave was returned with a small one. The V.P. waited until he was certain they went away before sighing as he remained on his couch.

What a mess.

The Chief Financial Officer was the closest thing to a cousin the V.P. had; he was built from leftover pieces of the V.P.'s construction, and he was undoubtedly the friendliest of the Bosses, not that the V.P. didn't like the others, but the C.F.O called more than once in a week, and some of his calls weren't all-business. He cared for him, being the eldest Cog Boss, but after the horrible month where his Headquarters were crashed, he felt terrible for not helping him out. Sure, he sent the famous Mr.Holywood Mega-Invasion to relieve him a bit from the stress, but, unable to reach the Cashbots' HQ, they couldn't do much...He even sent constant Glad Hander invasion into the fullest districts of ToonTown (Which behaved quit oddly, like a separate dimension. The V.P. needed a while to wrap his head around them), but in vain, none of these stopped the Operation, and he hated that. He and his fellow Bosses couldn't have risked helping him out more than that, lest they expose the C.F.O. Project completely, but it was with an extremely heavy heart, and it was the closest the V.P. came to crying in a while when he saw how many times the C.F.O was defeated.

The massive Cog stared out of his window at the dark-gray sky, which wasn't actually polluted; Cogs were pragmatic, they knew pollution was quite horrible for them (or, more correctly, their sales and public image), yet they liked grey skies, so they constantly produced materials which, while having no effects on the environment, changed the sky's colour. The Oil spills in the Sellbot HQ were an exception, but they were on gravel anyways. And the Sellbot Headquarters was built before the Cogs researched their relationship with the environment. He oversaw his Cogs, patrolling the area. He knew how it felt, to be helpless. To have no hope. To have to wish for someone's help, yet never find it. He'd felt that feeling when the Toons crushed The Sellbot Factory and stopped its production, crushing him at every encounter, which is why there are now several other Factories away from Toon view to accommodate any future emergencies, and the C.F.O had several lanes for his trains, though, they were all blocked now. Another sigh comes out of him, and he starts preparing to do something that should've been done a month ago:

Visit the C.F.O.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good day, afternoon, or day, folks! Welcome to Crashed, also known as my attempt to make the Cogs more sympathetic. I've had this idea floating around in my head for a couple of weeks as I wrote it, as I imagined the long-term effects of Operation: Crash Cashbot on the poor C.F.O. and the Cog Community, if such a thing exists in the first place, in general. I also tried keeping the Cogs and Bosses in character as much as possible, but you may see some Fanon poking through...Besides, I tried expanding on their admittedly limited traits. I'll still ask for a TV show highlighting Cog lives. 
> 
> While I did have a lot of fun with this, I also tried refining my dialogue skills, the general structure of my Fanfic', and various other little things that I hope make reading this enjoyable. I do, however, implore you to share your feedback! I appreciate any comments or criticisms you may have immensely, and I hope you've enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it. The second Chapter should be up in no time.
> 
> Until next time, keep 'em busting, with laughter-Actually, maybe don't, they probably don't appreciate it. I mean, they get rebuilt, right? They can't have that many Cogs without rebuilding the ones damaged by Toons. So...Don't feel bad, it's just self-defense on our part. Maybe.


	2. The Visit

Cashbot Headquarters was being assaulted by the Cog forces and it was a _mess_. The Cashbots started the retaliation effort by having the most courageous Tightwads drive their trains into the crashed Cashbot trains, shoving them out of the way and surprising the Toons. The battle began with several of the Tightwads getting defeated swiftly, but the destruction of the badly-disguised Trolley and the capture of one of its leaders was a morale victory. The V.P. was passing by the backdoor, trying to avoid being seen by any Toons. The Sell-Cash coalition stormed the train-yard, led by Robber Baron-35-25, a veteran Cashbot. The Toons were still fighting by the time the Vice President had reached the boss lobby room, most of the Toons were defeated, and some Resistance Rangers were even captured.

But the charge wasn't without consequences; several Cogs were defeated during their hasty entry to the Headquarters, and Lowden Clear was nowhere to be found. That was a major loss; V.P. was hoping to capture him to discover any future Toon plans. The battle was fierce still, but it seemed like the Cogs' counterstrike had managed to drive away most Toons, with the main battlefield being the stairs which led to the exit of the Headquarters, where many Toons were fighting until their last gag, often quite literally. The large Sellbot Boss turned his head in sorrow from the exploding Cogs, even when he knew they'd be rebuilt, as it was a shocking sight to any Cog. Still, he took solace in the fact that he heard and saw many of the remaining Toons go sad.

He turned his head back to the massive doors in front of him. They looked identical to the Cog Entrance's doors, and the room they led too was equally identical, with the sole exception of the elevator being large enough to accommodate two Cog Bosses. It might've seemed odd to have the Boss Entrance out of view, but the Cogs had learnt enough about the Toons to know that anything important must be kept away from them; at least the Toons only found _one_ of C.F.O's vaults, the one they fight him in, unlike V.P., whom they found his personal promotion tower.

He took a deep breath and readied himself as he entered the humongous elevator and straightened his clothes. The elevator music was somewhat calming, but he still wasn't ready for what he'd see. The doors opened, revealing a massive room in front of them. CFO's.

V.P. let out a deep, annoyed sigh before he started moving his massive wheels to start entering the room, checking around the massive room. C.F.O. was given a massively large room after his creation, mostly due to blatant favoritism by the Chairman, who thought the new Cashbot Boss would be the end to all the troubles caused by Toons to Cashbots. He worked for a while, doing his best, but then one day, a group of Toons managed to lure him into one of his transport vaults, which contained several magnets for safe-moving purposes. Said magnets were then used by the Toons to thwart C.F.O's last line of defense against him; the larger Cashbot usually mass-produced Goons of all sizes to make Toons go sad, but a stunned Goon was easily picked by a magnet, then it would be thrown back at its creator. And it wasn't as if the Bosses wouldn't withstand physical punishment, but C.F.O had a short temper, and he could only stand having several Goons and safes thrown at him before he'd tried to escape onto a train, and unfortunately, the Toons had it booby-trapped, and he got hit by the train...

It hurt, temporarily disabled him and put him into a dangerous state, but the biggest loss of that situation had been the fact that the new strategy was used by Toons each and every time they'd infiltrate his vaults. He got upgraded to survive further train accidents, but he'd always been sad his weakness was discovered. He got used to it, though, like V.P. did, but a massive, large-scale attack like Operation: Crash Cashbot HQ? That would've destroyed was little morale he had left. V.P. certainly felt bad after Operation: Storm Sellbot, but he was, all things considered, in a decent mental state. C.F.O., however, was less accepting to being defeated.

The purple-wearing Cog gulped some oil, trying to shake off the though alongside any sign of sadness or shock from his optical lenses in an attempt to not make his fellow Cog Boss feel as if the situation was too bad. He kept searching the room, the kitchen, meeting room, and main room (which was fancier than the V.P. could _claim_ his main room would ever be,), so that only left one option.

He let out another sigh as he stood before the massive doors which led to the personal chamber, decorated with various neat finanacial signs alongside a usually-positive revenue chart. It was in the negative this time around, and seeing how many resources the Cashbot Boss used during the Operation, V.P. couldn't have been less surprised. He *was*, after all, quite informed on resource management considering it was part of his job.

-"Good evening, C.F.O.", the Sellbot Boss decided the formal tone wouldn't help the situation, so he tried to casually spark a conversation as he entered the room. He stifled his horror for a minute as he tried to not gasp at the sight in front of him, however, because in front of him, the C.F.O. was lying his upper body on a bed, an oil pipe attached to his arm, and he looked positively _pitiful_. Sure, he'd often look annoyed after a defeat, but that's what it was: annoyed. His hull never looked so badly bruised and bent, and has never had so many broken pieces. His under-carriage didn't look all that better; one of his sides was absolutely busted from how many times he was hit by a train, and some of the buttons on his cash-register-like face had fallen off, not to mention how warped the dollar sign on his head was looking.

-"Good grief, is it really that bad?", a groggy noise came out of the other Boss; V.P. must've shown some emotions in his eyes. That, and that his head immediately turned to his frowning face. Stupid instant-reaction technology...he always begged for it to be removed, but no such luck. "From your face, I'm gonna go ahead and say "yes". How's life, V.P.?", while they were _technically_ forced to refer to each other by 'The', all of them, even C.E.O, who obeyed the most crazed orders as long as they came from The Chairman, had silently agreed that referring to someone with a grammatical article made it more difficult to socialize, and being honest, socializing was a very useful thing to help facilitate co-operation. It was one thing V.P. wasn't reprimanded for taking from Toons.

-"Certainly seems like it could be treating you better...", V.P. replied, cautious not to make his friend more upset than he already was. Luckily for him, the other Cog simply laughed.

-"Certainly...I'd been trying to take things lightly, but this month was something else...", the financial Cog lamented, trying to right himself as he talked to his workmate, "I counted how many times I was defeated this month. Eighty-five thousand times I was defeated. Eighty-five thousand.", he informed the other Cog before giving up on attempting to sit rightly; he was too tired for that.

-"Well, it's not _that_ bad considering you were out of resources. You did your best.", in a meek voice, the Sellbot attempted encouraging the other, only to be met with violent coughing, which he had assumed was the best laugh the C.F.O. could produce.

-"Then apparently my best isn't good enough!", he tried crying before he felt dazed, resting his head on his pillow. "I should've seen this coming. I should've known this would happen. I should've ordered reinforcements or something!, he berated himself, almost forgetting the V.P. was there. He looked dangerously angry, to the point where it could worsen his current state.

-"Listen, it wasn't your fault...Even if you ordered reinforcements, they wouldn't have been able to arrive on time; we were all busy on the C.F.O. Project...", trying to pull his Cashbot counterpart out of his mood, the V.P. rejected his theory, "Speaking of which, have you seen the presentation I sent you today?"

-"The one about why the Toons crashed my Headquarters, made a train run over me every moment of my existence for a month and turned most of my Cashbots into a pile of gears that I had to send them to your repair factories because mine were too occupied?", well, he was certainly taking this positively, wasn't he? "Yes, I _did_ see it. Wish I hadn't.", he poisonously spat out. "The others think they're _so_ busy, _so_ important that they couldn't send my a couple of Cog squads, but those are just lies. You sent me several Glad Hander invasions, not mentioning the annual Hollywood Mega-Invasion to help me out. They're just saving their resources.", he continued, glaring at the ceiling as if it had personally wronged him.

-"Listen,", the Sellbot Boss let out a big, frustrated sigh as he rested his upper-body on his conveyor-belts and undercarriage, using them like a chair, "You know how important Corporate Field Offices are for us. For all of us. We need them to continue advancing against 'Jellybeans', otherwise-"

-"Well, you should also know that not being absolutely _curb stomped_ is important to me! I'm the one managing all of the finances and what do I get? _Nothing!_ ", interrupting his visitor, C.F.O.'s mood seemed to worsen by the second, and he threatened to blow up from anger in spite of how groggy he looked. "If I could, I'd have probably quit by now. You know full well that the single currency not faring well are Cog Bucks. Cog Dollars and _basically everything else is doing fine!_ I'm the one responsible for upping the currency, and this matters to me more than it could ever matter to _you_ , but it was not necessary to leave me here to _rot_ while you were free from Toon attacks!", he spat out, refraining from making eye contact with V.P. while the latter tried formulating a good retort, shocked by the accusations of his co-boss.

-"I'm sorry I couldn't help.", finally, he'd decided on apologizing. It should've done the trick. It seemed to make C.F.O. take a step back and remain silent in surprise, in any case. "I know I should've probably pressured them a bit further, but you know how important it was. They'd have never listened to me...", he tried calming the other recovering Cog. There was a stiff silence between the two as the response was processed by C.F.O., who eventually released an annoyed sigh, apparently resigned.

-"It wouldn't make you guys laugh if you treated this with the idea of 'This could be me' in your heads.", was all he contented to say while his partner-in-business nodded, relieved to see that his "cousin" wasn't about to explode. Again. "I just don't understand why the Toons want to stop us so badly...we're all doing our best to help them adapt to a successful world of business and seriousness...We're helping them the best we can and all we get are pies to the face.", he grumbled, trying to move his body to a more comfortable position on the massive bed.

-"I...I don't know. I don't think they appreciate the art of business as a whole.", the V.P. sorrowfully theorized, looking at the ground for a moment. "You know how much I try researching about Toons, and I've come to the realization that perhaps they just aren't interested in a business utopia.", he concluded, attempting to rid his voice of any emotions as the C.F.O. looked at him as if he just said that the sun was purple or something.

-"Of course they are, they're just...They just need more persuading, that's all!", no Cog would ever consider his theory valid, though, as proven by the financial chief's reaction, "I mean, I know that they like having 'fun' and ignore corporate business, but a little concentration on more serious stuff would benefit them, V.P.! _We're_ the good guys here, remember?", he shot back, trying to lift his body with his good arm.

-"Of course, there's no denying that. But...Maybe we could go on about it a little calmer? You said it yourself: They need to concentrate a _little_ more, not have their entire lives revolving around work. That's _our_ job.", trying to lighten the mood, the Sellbot Boss turned to his smiling face once more as C.F.O. seemed to consider his opinion for a moment.

-"...I-I guess that's true...But they won't stop attacking us even if we become a little less...hostile in our convincing methods, you know. They'll never stop.", he declared in a matter-of-factly tone, gazing at his co-worker, as if waiting for vindication to come from the other Cog.

-"...That's true...but..I don't know. This entire thing is far too complicated to discuss now.", another silence between the two was present as the pair thought for a moment.

-"True. I suppose all we can do is pray they see the good in our ways.", the Cashbot Boss tore the silence, shutting down the topic as if it was simply to exhausting of a task to talk about, and the V.P. approved. He never liked such topics. Business, he could handle, social analysis and judging his actions? Not in the slightest. "I gotta protect my place better I guess...Why on _earth_ did Bean Counter-8-125 not stop that Trolley when he saw it?! Was he expecting it to pay some sort of tax?", pulling the V.P. out of his thoughts, the C.F.O. started mumbling again, threatening to explode with anger as he remembered the presentation his friend sent him.

-"Well, there were no regulations about stuff like this, so I guess 8-125 just didn't know what to do. I'd suggest pumping up your security concerning track controls, though.", happy to change the subject of discussion, the purple-wearing Sellbot suggested the obvious, only to receive a smug grin from the Cashbot.

-"Been there, done that. All track controls security measures have been _quadrupled_. Only a battalion of Toons could enter.", he proudly declared, patting his Cashbot logo on his just, but much to his dismay, that only started another violent coughing fit which he struggled with, worrying the other Cog.

-"Easy there!"

-"Trying...", the sick Boss coughed before regaining control over himself, remaining silent before speaking up. "...Hey, I appreciate your visit, V.P., it truly means a lot to me.", he muttered weakly before picking up his sentence, "I'm not forgiving all of you for leaving me just yet, even if I understand why you did it, but I still greatly appreciate it."

-"I did nothing special. I'm certain C.J. and C.E.O. are going to call you or send you an e-mail.", the Sellbot affirmed, provoking a dry laugh from the other Cog, though a small one, as he wanted to avoid another coughing fit.

-"...Maybe. I wouldn't expect too much, but I'd be pleasantly surpri-", just as he was voicing his suspicions, C.F.O's phone vibrated for a moment. The V.P. never actually noticed the small table next to the bed, which had the massive smartphone on it, and he resisted the urge to slap himself as he realized he forgot his phone in his room. Again. "...Would you look at that? C.J. _did_ actually send me something. Huh.", was all he said as he rested his phone again on the table, "I'll read it later. Gonna have to thank him for that one, maybe he'd even give me his signature on another I-Owe-You...", he continued his ramblings, almost to himself.

-" _What?_ Please, please don't tell me the Toons took all your I-Owe-You papers...", alright, so the V.P. hated having leverage over him, but he knew how much the other boss treasured his papers, which meant whoever signed them owed him a favor. He'd have been devastated if they were taken from him, as that would remove much of his resources in the Cog world in situations where none had the time to be generous, not to mention how much he'll pressure them to get them back...

-"Nah, they just took three copies. After that, I started getting fake copies to distract them, thank goodness.", the nonchalant reply was comforting. At least he was taking it lighter than he expected. "You know, while these papers _are_ quite important to me, I don't quite like _having_ to rely on them to make a Cog work for me. I try to maintain to idea that I have a _decent_ amount of charisma that makes Cogs listen to me.", the Cashbot explained as he saw the surprised expression on his workmate's smiling face.

-"I mean, your Cashbots certainly like you, judging by their attempts to stand with you...Also, they told me to show you a video that'll cheer you up...Just allow me to access my Mingler Mail through your phone; I forgot mine...", the Sellbot Boss confirmed for him as he snuck his finger to the phone, the other hand sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck as the C.F.O. grunted. Reaching the video the Cashbots sent to him, the V.P. clicked on the 'Play' button as he positioned the phone between the two Bosses.

-" _HERE COMES THE MONEEEEEEEEEY! HERE COME THE MONEEEEEEEY!_ ", in an instinctive reaction, the V.P. immediately lowered the volume as the song blared through the phone's speakers, which had the title of "Here Comes The Money-Naughty By Nature.". Listening dumbfoundedly, the pair waited as the song ended after about two minutes and a half before bursting out with laughter, so much they were afraid they'd blow-up.

-"...I-Hah!", emitting the closest thing a Cog could produce to a serious snort, the C.F.O.'s mood seemed like it improved massively, "What was that? And why had I never heard about it before?", he asked with a hundred-percent serious voice, still trying to muffle his laughter.

-"Probably because it'd make us explode if we watch it too many times.", the purple-wearing boss answered, having contained most of his laughter; laughing wasn't exactly _frowned_ upon in the Cog world, but considering its often lethal effects, it was avoided like some sort of computer-virus. "But it's good to know it cheered you up. I was afraid I'd have to use my special counter-plan to get to this part.", he continued, staring at the C.F.O.'s smile, which quickly turned into a curious frown. Not needing to hear a single question, the V.P. un-bolted his massive purple sweater, revealing a green shirt underneath it with the C.F.O.'s face on it.

-"I made a Resistance Ranger make tweak some of the shirts they made to mock you after I captured her. Thought it would cheer you up.", he explained as he saw the look of complete bewilderment and confusion on the Cashbot's face. Indeed, a certain Bulletin Belle was distributing T-shirts mocking C.F.O. to Toons which managed to complete some tasks, usually involving assaulting Cashbot Headquarters or C.F.O. in various ways. He had her captured (which, honestly, was rather simple with how much of an air-head she was.) and forced her to redesign some of the shirts that were made to mock him during Operation:Storm Sellbot at first then the shirts mocking C.F.O. during Crash Cashbot in exchange for releasing her. She obliged, far too easily in the V.P.'s eyes, but he didn't complain. She simply removed the red cross on the finances'chief's face and the shirt looked like it was made to cheer for him instead.

-"That's...That's...touching, V.P., quite.", was all the Cashbot Boss managed to spill out after a moment of examining the shirt. It was quite simple, and the only other thing on the shirt was a dark-green hue, resembling the traditional Cashbot suits'. His eyes, though still seeming somewhat unfocused due to his injury, were filled with appreciation. Cogs were never good at expressing small things such as gratitude or happiness. Intentionally, anyways. V.P. should know, he _is_ a Cog. Still, C.F.O. was one of the better ones at it. Far better than C.J. or C.E.O., in any case, who both suffered from being unable to express many emotions, C.E.O. in particular had once taken a few _days_ to thank V.P. for visiting him for something other than business. Knowing the Bossbot Boss, he was probably trying to process that there are other things in life that can make someone visit another person. "But don't go thinking I'll be forgiving all of you for leaving me alone. This may quicken the process, but I give no guarantees.", he scoffed with a smirk, letting the Sellbot roll his eyes in their cylindrical sockets.

-"I expected as much. Good to hear you're back to usual, C.F.O.", the two shared a quick Cog-approved chuckle as the topic came to the Cashbot's usually grumpy mood. Sure, C.E.O. was the most sarcastic and fun-hating of the quartet of Bosses, but C.F.O. was undoubtedly the easiest one to get frustrated and lose his calm. Also the one with the worst mood, but none could've blamed him considering how many trains he hits on a weekly, or in the month of Operation: Crash Cashbot, daily, occurance. "So what are your plans for recovery?"

-"I'm glad you asked! You see...", perking up at the mention of business, C.F.O. started explaining in detail his various plans to increase the income of Cashbots without having to tax products arriving to Cashbot Headquarters too hard, his proposals to drop being "fair" to Toons and produce Goons that can zap half a Toon's laff-points with a single flash from their headlights, and several other things related to their work. V.P. had to internally smile as he knew the question would uplift his friend's mood; he knew him too well. He'd been there ever since C.F.O. was first manufactured, and being his 'cousin', it was quite easy to relate to the guy. He knew from the start what his favorite type of gears would be, anyways. That must've done something to make their relationship go from "strict-business" to "some-sort-of-strange-but-still-functional-in-name-friendship". Though, if it was related to how many similarities they had in their hulls, then technically he should've been able to become friends with C.E.O. in no time, as the latter had a significant portion of him made from leftovers of the V.P.'s construction materials, and while he and the Bossbot Boss _did_ become decent "friends", if that's how you can describe it, after a while, the Chief Executive Officer treated him for the longest while with hostility. Chief Justice, in spite of being completely devoid of any V.P. related parts, was far more accepting, even if he too acted all high-and-mighty at first, but then again, all the Bosses, V.P. included, were like that with varying degrees when they were first constructed.

-"...And that's not even mentioning the plans I'll devise after studying market potential, you know, I'm planning on trying to invade the Toons market with Cog-themed products, the Flunky Backpack has apparently received an extremely positive reception, with most Toons unaware that we were its manufacturers, so if we can't beat them in the ever-lasting battle, we'll get them economically!", C.F.O. finished his plans dramatically as the Sellbot voiced his approval. "What about you? Any plans for how to deploy the Corporate Field Offices?"

-"Oh. I, uh-I mean, of course! Just-Uh, I-Can I rephrase myself?", caught off-guard by the question, which pulled him out of his listen-and-think phase, much to the Cashbot Boss's amusement. Taking a deep breath before starting, the Sellbot began, "We'll catch the Toons off-guard, no doubt about that,", he ignored a sly 'Like how I caught you off-guard?' from the bed-ridden Cog, "Having _their_ Headquarters be stormed for once by _us_ will be an unexpected turn of events that should lower their stocks of...morales, I suppose....", he continued rambling about the various business related uses the Offices would have as the other Cog listened to him. C.F.O. had quite appreciated the gesture that his workmate had offered; not many Cogs could find time in their busy schedules to do things other than work, and sending an e-mail on Mingler Mail, like C.J. had done, was considered going beyond necessary if one didn't have the time. As he came to think about it, V.P. was always there from the beginning, with this strange idea of the two being "cousins", which the Cashbot always had troubles grasping. On their first meeting, C.F.O. was far more haughty, considering the leader of the Sellbots as a setback. After all, there must've been a reason _he_ was constructed, right? Still, once he woke up from his first defeat at the hands of the Toons and saw him alongside his most trusted Cashbots waiting at his recovery bed, their relationship had immediately improved. He was on good terms with the other Bosses, and he was closer with the C.J., yet the V.P. was far more..."caring", as much as he and other Cogs hated that term, but it was the only thing that came to his mechanical mind, and he appreciated that quality. Not to mention how fast V.P. could finish his work and free up his time schedules, only he and C.E.O. had that gift, and C.F.O. envied both of them with a passion.

-"Then, as we expand our Field Office market, I'm planning to let you test them out a bit, and even when taking losses due to Toon retaliations, we have a successful products on our hands.", V.P. ended his presentation with a relieved tone; he hated it when he had to give unscheduled presentations of his plans; he'd have no papers, charts, or electronic presentations set, and it would throw him off, especially if he was talking to The Chairman himself.

-"Good stuff. Well planned, it seems like."

-"Yep. Can't wait to see where it goes wrong _this_ time!", the Sellbot replied, his tone filled to the brim with fake enthusiasm and exasperation.

-"Hey, cheer up a bit. I'm certain we'll achieve a good level of success. Even C.E.O. is ac-well, _trying_ to act optimistic.", C.F.O. countered, reminding him of the uncanny behavior of the golf-loving Cog during the last meeting before the whole Crash Cashbot fiasco. He'd been trying to act as if everything was going to be alright when he'd be the one pointing out the monthly losses and failures, mostly because it's his job, partly because he was never an optimist.

-"Yeah, yeah, I'm aware. It's just the fact that I'm visiting my friend after the Toons crashed his Headquarters and made him bed-ridden makes me a wee bit tired of having to deal with them. This soon, anyways...", he explained, trying his earnest not to turn to his frowning face. A small silence grew once again as neither of the pair seemed to know what to say.

-"...Thanks again, by the way. I honestly appreciate it, V.P.", breaking the silence, C.F.O. had decided to make sure he gets the message fully across, partly because he _was_ actually thankful, partly because he didn't want guilt to get the best of him and make him do this sometime later. Having emotions helped understand the Toons better, but it also made life more difficult. "I know I've said this before, but it truly means a great deal to me. I owe you one, pal."

-"...So where's the I-Owe-You paper you'll sign?", another round of laughing echoed through the room before they regained their composure, "Don't worry too much about it, being sappy is just not you.", he comforted the Cashbot Boss, who seemed slightly disappointed that his thanks didn't quite register with the V.P. "I'm... _half_ kidding, but seriously, don't work yourself about it. I appreciate the gesture, though.", he repeated, relieving the other Cog, happy his sappiness wasn't in vain; he would never get sappy if it isn't serious, and if his sappiness wasn't appreciated...well, it would've been an embarrassing moment for everyone involved. Not to mention how cranky he'd get.

The two resumed their talks again after a small moment of rethinking their paroles, talking about how much Field Offices will change the traditional Cog-Toon Conflict. Taking the fight to the Toons was a game-changer, if you'd excuse the Toony vocabulary. They'd open up a new front which the Toons needed to watch out for, and it would certainly get some relief in their Headquarters as Toon forces divert to two groups to deal with the new Offices. Despite his rather...unconfident comment, V.P. still had hope they'd manage to strike a nerve with the Toons. Even at the absolute worst-case scenario, Field Offices were still a large distraction, what with them being a new front and all, not to mention how many new gadgets the Toons were going to deal with. Even if that was their only benefit, the two Cogs were drooling-Well, the closest thing a Cog could get to drooling, anyways- at the upcoming project's effects.

When the pleasantries ended and C.F.O. had returned to talking about fiscal years and revenues, it was then V.P. had truly felt as if his job was concluded. Not that there was anything _bad_ with business-It was a passion amongst all Cogs, and V.P. was no exception, and when C.F.O. had stopped talking about work, he knew an apology was due. He'd have liked it to be sooner than this, yet he had no guarantee Toons wouldn't intercept him if he tried visiting the Cashbot before Operation: Crash Cashbot's end. He'd have preferred staying for a lengthier period, but this was, for all intents and purposes, an unauthorized visit that could leave the V.P. with far too much work piling up on him.

The Sellbot looked at a non-existent watch on his wrist to get the idea across. "Looks like my time's up.", he stated as he used his hands to lift his body off his undercarriage, returning to his original height. He put on his iconic purple vest again and bolted it up, straightening the collar a bit. "It was a good evening, C.F.O.", he mumbled as he started revving up his engine to start moving. C.F.O. nodded in agreement, apparently saving up his energy.

"You know, maybe we should make these visits less infrequent. To raise the morales and things like that.", the Cashbot Boss absentmindedly suggested, trying to sound as casual as possible.

-"Indeed.", V.P. agreed before continuing, "But I'll need to free myself up again; my schedule's a bit full this week, and I'll probably fall off the Towers a couple of dozen of times. The usual.", he shrugged before shaking C.F.O.'s hand and lightly patting his shoulder to not cause any further damage. "See you later, pal."

-"Same to you, V.P.", he replied with a smile, shaking his co-worker's hand before the familiar tune of Cog-Tastrophe started blaring in the room, startling the duo. It was a favorite amongst Cogs, as fun-hating as they were, they just couldn't deny how good of a tune it was, so it was no surprise C.F.O. had it as his phone's ringing tone. V.P. took the opportunity and saw it as his time to leave, waving goodbye to the Cashbot, who looked forlornly at the phone before answering while waving at the Sellbot.

-"Hello? Uh-Yeah,of course I have Caller ID installed, C.J. it's ju-What? No! I'm quite happy with your call, it's just that you-Well, I'm not complaining if you're picking up new habits. How're you doing?", V.P.'s smile inadvertently grew as he felt a sort of pride in the fact that he told the other Bosses that C.F.O. needed some good-will gestures. Good-will was something they weren't good with, but it seemed C.J. was at least _trying_. C.E.O. would probably follow suit sometime later. Maybe.

The following week will probably be difficult, with the Toons flooding the other Headquarters again, the Sellbot thought, yet there was still something that made him feel a bit relieved as he exited C.F.O.'s room.

Off to get crashed and thrown off his Towers, he thought. He'd once thought about filling the massive hole with mattresses, but budget constraints got in the way. At least he had some buddies who'd stand by his side. That, and he had his work to enjoy.

_Now_ , he thought, stroking his back where he usually falls as he heard C.F.O. having a pleasant time with C.J., _things are back in order_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end of it, folks! It's a small 'fic, sure, but I enjoyed it a lot. Not much to add here, since I already shared my thoughts in other notes, but as always, do leave your thoughts, feedback and comments, all are greatly appreciated.
> 
> I had a great time trying to piece together the V.P. and C.F.O.'s dynamic, though it was a bit of a challenge to keep them Cog-like while making them....human? Sympathetic is probably the correct term, and I'd like to hear your folks' opinions on it, though I'm fairly happy with it.
> 
> Until next time, keep 'em busting, with laughter!...Just don't go too far.

**Author's Note:**

> Good day, afternoon, or night, folks! Welcome to my attempt at making the Cogs more sympathetic, also known as a Fanfic'. I've had this idea in my mind for a couple of weeks now, and I just needed to get it out, besides, I actually enjoyed it.
> 
> Born out of my desire to imagine what the C.F.O. felt like after being mercilessly assaulted by the Toons for an entire month. I tried keeping everything in character, but sometimes you'll some of my Fanon springing through. I tried working on my dialogue skills, the general structure a 'Fic and various other, smaller, elements, but I still obviously need a lot of help, so do leave your feedback! I highly appreciate it, any comments you may have mean a lot to me.
> 
> Until next time, keep 'em busting, with laughter-Or, well, maybe don't. They probably don't appreciate it. It's just self-defense, right?


End file.
